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Design and development of robot grippers

Author

Chen, Ka Wee

Date of Issue

2017

School

School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Research Centre

Robotics Research Centre

Abstract

Grippers in automation industries are often expensive and difficult to modify. There are
many machines that specialized in bolt assembly, but there are not many for a robot
gripper to perform a bolt assembly. This report presents the design of a low-cost, simple,
compact, lightweight gripper that is able to grip and turn the bolt. This project establishes
the design of two-fingers hand utilizing simple 3D-printed components, and off-the-shelf
parts. Few researches were done for the assembly bolt machine and gripper. The gripper
is able to grip the bolt weight of less than 50 grams and perform rotation motion. Few
mechanisms and ideas were generated but after analyzing, a final mechanism which
consist of a compact gripper and a simple 3D-printed case for the fingers is designed and
fabricated. The rotation motion is achieved by the actuation of a micro DC motor through
a pair of spur gears.
In the automation industry, most of the gripper that use to grip cylindrical object are
commonly simple jaw design, for example V-shaped jaw and flat jaw, both of the jaws
normally grip cylindrical object by using parallel motion, whereas angular motion is
being restricted by the design of the jaw. This report also presents a low-cost, simple and
angular motion gripper that is able to grip cylindrical objects that are commonly found
in our daily lives. 3D-printed components and off-the-shelf parts were used to establish
the design of the gripper. Few researches were done and few ideas were generated, but
after analyzing, a final mechanism was decided and put to test. A gripper is designed and
fabricated with simple linkage and individual jaw. The opening and closing motion is
achieved by a DC motor and a pair of spur gear.
These grippers are still under conceptual phase, improvement can be done to the gripper
to make it better. Further recommendations and improvements are included in the report.